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Cai Y, Poli ANR, Vadrevu S, Gyampoh K, Hart C, Ross B, Fair M, Xue F, Salvino JM, Montaner LJ. BCL6 BTB-specific inhibitor reversely represses T Cell activation, Tfh cells differentiation and germinal center reaction in vivo. Eur J Immunol 2021; 51:2441-2451. [PMID: 34287839 DOI: 10.1002/eji.202049150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Revised: 05/22/2021] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Inhibition of the BCL6 BTB domain results in killing Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBL) cells, reducing the T-cell dependent germinal center (GC) reaction in mice, and reversing GC hyperplasia in nonhuman primates. The available BCL6 BTB-specific inhibitors are poorly water soluble thus limiting their absorption in vivo and our understanding of therapeutic strategy targeting GC. We synthesized a prodrug (AP-4-287) from a potent BCL6 BTB inhibitor (FX1) with improved aqueous solubility and pharmacokinetics (PK) in mice. We also evaluated its in vivo biological activity on humoral immune responses using the sheep red blood cells (SRBC)-vaccination mouse model. AP-4-287 had a significant higher aqueous solubility and was readily converted to FX1 in vivo after intraperitoneally (i.p.) administration, but a shorter half-life in vivo. Importantly, AP-4-287 treatment led to a reversible effect on (1) the reduction in the frequency of splenic Ki67+ CD4+ T cells, Tfh cells, and GC B cells; (2) lower GC formation following vaccination; and (3) a decrease in the titers of antigen-specific IgG and IgM antibodies. Our study advances the pre-clinical development of drug targeting BCL6 BTB domain for the treatment of diseases that are associated with abnormal BCL6 elevation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanhui Cai
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | | | - Surya Vadrevu
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Kwasi Gyampoh
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Colin Hart
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Brian Ross
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Matt Fair
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Fengtian Xue
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA
| | - Joseph M Salvino
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Luis J Montaner
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
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Kapoor Y, Meyer RF, Ferguson HM, Skomski D, Daublain P, Troup GM, Dalton C, Ramasamy M, Templeton AC. Flexibility in Drug Product Development: A Perspective. Mol Pharm 2021; 18:2455-2469. [PMID: 34165309 DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.1c00210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
The process of bringing a drug to market involves innumerable decisions to refine a concept into a final product. The final product goes through extensive research and development to meet the target product profile and to obtain a product that is manufacturable at scale. Historically, this process often feels inflexible and linear, as ideas and development paths are eliminated early on to allow focus on the workstream with the highest probability of success. Carrying multiple options early in development is both time-consuming and resource-intensive. Similarly, changing development pathways after significant investment carries a high "penalty of change" (PoC), which makes pivoting to a new concept late in development inhibitory. Can drug product (DP) development be made more flexible? The authors believe that combining a nonlinear DP development approach, leveraging state-of-the art data sciences, and using emerging process and measurement technologies will offer enhanced flexibility and should become the new normal. Through the use of iterative DP evaluation, "smart" clinical studies, artificial intelligence, novel characterization techniques, automation, and data collection/modeling/interpretation, it should be possible to significantly reduce the PoC during development. In this Perspective, a review of ideas/techniques along with supporting technologies that can be applied at each stage of DP development is shared. It is further discussed how these contribute to an improved and flexible DP development through the acceleration of the iterative build-measure-learn cycle in laboratories and clinical trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yash Kapoor
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Robert F Meyer
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Heidi M Ferguson
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Daniel Skomski
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Pierre Daublain
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Gregory M Troup
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Chad Dalton
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Manoharan Ramasamy
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
| | - Allen C Templeton
- Merck & Co., Inc., 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
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Landis MS, Bhattachar S, Yazdanian M, Morrison J. Commentary: Why Pharmaceutical Scientists in Early Drug Discovery Are Critical for Influencing the Design and Selection of Optimal Drug Candidates. AAPS PharmSciTech 2018; 19:1-10. [PMID: 28755053 DOI: 10.1208/s12249-017-0849-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2017] [Accepted: 07/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
This commentary reflects the collective view of pharmaceutical scientists from four different organizations with extensive experience in the field of drug discovery support. Herein, engaging discussion is presented on the current and future approaches for the selection of the most optimal and developable drug candidates. Over the past two decades, developability assessment programs have been implemented with the intention of improving physicochemical and metabolic properties. However, the complexity of both new drug targets and non-traditional drug candidates provides continuing challenges for developing formulations for optimal drug delivery. The need for more enabled technologies to deliver drug candidates has necessitated an even more active role for pharmaceutical scientists to influence many key molecular parameters during compound optimization and selection. This enhanced role begins at the early in vitro screening stages, where key learnings regarding the interplay of molecular structure and pharmaceutical property relationships can be derived. Performance of the drug candidates in formulations intended to support key in vivo studies provides important information on chemotype-formulation compatibility relationships. Structure modifications to support the selection of the solid form are also important to consider, and predictive in silico models are being rapidly developed in this area. Ultimately, the role of pharmaceutical scientists in drug discovery now extends beyond rapid solubility screening, early form assessment, and data delivery. This multidisciplinary role has evolved to include the practice of proactively taking part in the molecular design to better align solid form and formulation requirements to enhance developability potential.
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Bhardwaj S, Lipert M, Bak A. Mitigating Cocrystal Physical Stability Liabilities in Preclinical Formulations. J Pharm Sci 2017; 106:31-38. [DOI: 10.1016/j.xphs.2016.07.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2016] [Accepted: 07/20/2016] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
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Wuelfing WP, Daublain P, Kesisoglou F, Templeton A, McGregor C. Preclinical Dose Number and Its Application in Understanding Drug Absorption Risk and Formulation Design for Preclinical Species. Mol Pharm 2015; 12:1031-9. [DOI: 10.1021/mp500504q] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Pierre Daublain
- Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | | | | | - Caroline McGregor
- Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033, United States
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Kwong E. Advancing drug discovery: a pharmaceutics perspective. J Pharm Sci 2014; 104:865-71. [PMID: 25482223 DOI: 10.1002/jps.24294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2014] [Revised: 09/25/2014] [Accepted: 11/04/2014] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Current industry perspective of how discovery is conducted seems to be fragmented and does not have a unified overall outlook of how discovery challenges are being addressed. Consequently, well-defined processes and drug-likeness criteria are being viewed as "broken" and will not maintain future R&D productivity. In this commentary, an analysis of existing practices for defining successful development candidates resulted in a 5 "must do" list to help advance Drug Discovery as presented from a Pharmaceutics perspective. The 5 "must do" list includes: what an ideal discovery team model should look like, what criteria should be considered for the desired development candidate profile, what the building blocks of the development candidate should look like, and how to assess the development risks of the candidate.
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Charkoftaki G, Dokoumetzidis A, Valsami G, Macheras P. Elucidating the role of dose in the biopharmaceutics classification of drugs: the concepts of critical dose, effective in vivo solubility, and dose-dependent BCS. Pharm Res 2012; 29:3188-98. [PMID: 22760660 DOI: 10.1007/s11095-012-0815-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2012] [Accepted: 06/20/2012] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE To develop a dose dependent version of BCS and identify a critical dose after which the amount absorbed is independent from the dose. METHODS We utilized a mathematical model of drug absorption in order to produce simulations of the fraction of dose absorbed (F) and the amount absorbed as function of the dose for the various classes of BCS and the marginal cases in between classes. RESULTS Simulations based on the mathematical model of F versus dose produced patterns of a constant F throughout a wide range of doses for drugs of Classes I, II and III, justifying biowaiver claim. For Classes I and III the pattern of a constant F stops at a critical dose Dose(cr) after which the amount of drug absorbed, is independent from the dose. For doses higher than Dose(cr), Class I drugs become Class II and Class III drugs become Class IV. Dose(cr) was used to define an in vivo effective solubility as S(eff) = Dose(cr)/250 ml. Literature data were used to support our simulation results. CONCLUSIONS A new biopharmaceutic classification of drugs is proposed, based on F, separating drugs into three regions, taking into account the dose, and Dose(cr), while the regions for claiming biowaiver are clearly defined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgia Charkoftaki
- Laboratory of Biopharmaceutics & Pharmacokinetics Faculty of Pharmacy, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
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